


376. castle made of glass

by piggy09



Series: The Sestre Daily Drabble Project [18]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 17:56:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7517795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piggy09/pseuds/piggy09
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Helena goes to the DYAD to get Sarah out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	376. castle made of glass

When Helena comes back from the fire-that-was-a-ranch-once, everyone around her whispers and whispers. They say: _don’t tell her_. They say: _she’s unpredictable, she can’t know._

_What,_ Helena says. _What can’t I know_. She says it over and over – she says it to Missus-S and Felix most, because they look tired and weak and that is where you hit. The weakest point. That’s always where you lunge for. This she knows.

They say: _the DYAD took Sarah. Rachel took Sarah._

Helena wants to say _I knew, I knew this would happen_ but she doesn’t. How does that help anyone? It just makes her remember Sarah standing in front of Helena’s gun and begging for Rachel’s life. Sarah sees things in people, maybe. Sarah saw something in _Helena_ , and now Helena is here with Sarah’s family, and Sarah is locked in a cage.

So Helena waits until they are all yelling at each other, and then she goes.

The DYAD is like a big glass castle, a big hungry animal made of mirrors with steel for bones. But Helena has played this game before. She only has to look very hard at the ground until the corners of her eyes see people with uniforms and then she follows those people with uniforms until she finds a cabinet full of uniforms. She pulls on the blue-green staticky pants and shirt. She pulls the mask over her mouth, pulls her hair into a ponytail.

(The last time she did this was for a hospital. She was so young, then.

Ania had tried to scream but Helena had held the pillow over her mouth and pressed down hard. She still remembers the sound Ania made, anyways. She was younger then. She did not know.)

And then Helena heads down to the basement. She listens to whispers. They talk about Rachel and they talk about _subject_ – which Helena thinks is another word for _copy_ – and they talk about an – hm – o-o-for-ect-o-my, which sounds like another monster. Monsters within monsters, here in the DYAD building. Helena heads down throat. Helena enters belly. Helena listens to whispers, and keeps her hand on the knife in her pocket.

(It’s a different knife. It is from Missus-S’ kitchen. A kitchen-knife. The handle of it is blank and smooth and Helena is jealous of it, a little. For that smoothness.)

Down in the basement the doctors are scurrying. Helena scurries too.

“Oh, thank god, another nurse,” says one of them. “Get in Operating Room C, the subject’s being uncooperative. We’re going to have to forcefully sedate her.”

“Mm,” Helena says, and goes towards Operating Room C.

There: Sarah. Sarah thrashing in handcuffs (no) and prison clothes ( _no_ ) and fear in her eyes and she’s pleading and she’s yelling _hey, hey, what’s going on, what are you going to do, that isn’t what I signed_ —

There are two nurses and a doctor in the room, and that is nothing, and that is easy: one, two, three, done. Sarah is silent, now, not moving. She’s watching Helena with eyes full of fear. It feels like it’s been such a long time since she looked at Helena like that, but really it has not been that long. A week, maybe. A lifetime.

Helena pulls the mask off her face. “Hello, _sestra_ ,” she says. “Good to see you. Again.”

“Helena, how did you—” Sarah stops, shakes her head, starts pulling at her handcuffs. “We have to go. We have to go _now_.”

“Yes,” Helena says, “I know.” She starts on the restraints on Sarah’s ankles and is so busy fiddling with the clasps that she’s surprised when Sarah sits up and pulls her into a hug. Helena’s arms stick out on either side of Sarah, her bones surprised, her muscles afraid.

“You came back,” Sarah whispers, and she’s shaking, and that makes Helena wrap her arms around her sister and hold her tight. Like: _it’ll be okay_.

“Of course,” Helena says. “Always.”

In the corridor outside is the click of high-heeled shoes. Sarah lets Helena go, stumbles to her feet. Helena reaches for her knife. The two of them turn towards the door, and wait to see the monsters.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please kudos + comment if you enjoyed! :)


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